In a study appearing today (May 8th) in the scientific journal Demography, researchers show that people who run the risk of losing their jobs or businesses, or who have already done so, are in a much higher danger of developing a number of medical conditions as a result than the general population. Among the most common diseases associated with losing their workplace, people experience heart attacks or other heart diseases, diabetes, strokes, or hypertension. Doctors associate this state of affairs with the high amount of pressure former employees have to cope with.

The results have relevance not only in this time of crisis, when finding a workplace to replace the old one can prove to be very difficult for some. Previous studies on the matter have also shown that losing a job or a business can be detrimental to people's health. In addition, the new research comes to add that the finds hold water, regardless of whether those who participated in the investigation managed to get another job to replace their old one easily, or of whether, by the time the research ended, they were still unemployed.

“In today's economy, job loss can happen to anybody. We need to be aware of the health consequences of losing our jobs and do what we can to alleviate the negative effects,” Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society scholar Kate Strully says. She has also been the leader of the current research. The expert has additionally brought to attention worrisome statistics, which show that people who are already in poor medical condition have up to 40 percent higher chances of being fired from their workplace than their healthy colleagues.

Results have also shown that, for employees who lost their jobs without being responsible for it – as in when their company shut down completely, or other similar scenarios – the risk of contracting a medical condition increased by up to 54 percent, as opposed to employed individuals in the same socio-economic background. For those who, before losing their job, were not suffering from a preexisting condition, the risk of developing one was reported as going up by approximately 83 percent.

“As we consider ways to improve health in America during a time of economic recession and rising unemployment, it is critical that we look beyond health care reform to understand the tremendous impact that factors like job loss have on our health. Where and how we live, work, learn and play have a greater impact on how healthy we are than the health care we receive,” the HSPH Norman Professor of Public Health David R. Williams concludes. He is also the Harvard University Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology, as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America Staff Director.